Saturday, March 22, 2008

In Eckersberg's Cloisters

In Eckersberg’s Cloisters, San Lorenzo fuori le mura

The arches move, the light moves. Three brothers stroll away. A fourth brings a bushel of fruit from the gardens.And against a pillar, stairs rising northfrom his head, another brother attendsto a text--the arced afternoon light fails to reach him, no matter how I stand, tilt my head, cover one eye with this book.Only a slender lizard lies still and warms its blood with the sun; the walls, meanwhile, grow green at the edges, stucco peeled from brick like skin around a fresh and gradual wound.